Voltage-gated proton channels were studied under voltage clamp in excised, inside-out patches of human eosinophils, at various pHi with pHo 7.5 or 6.5 pipette solutions. H+ current fluctuations were observed consistently when the membrane was depolarized to voltages that activated H+ current. At pHi ≤ 5.5 the variance increased nonmonotonically with depolarization to a maximum near the midpoint of the H+ conductance-voltage relationship, g H-V, and then decreased, supporting the idea that the noise is generated by H+ channel gating. Power spectral analysis indicated Lorentzian and 1/f components, both related to H+ currents. Unitary H+ current amplitude was estimated from stationary or quasi-stationary variance, \documentclass[10pt]{article} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{pmc} \usepackage[Euler]{upgreek} \pagestyle{empty} \oddsidemargin -1.0in \begin{document} \begin{equation*}{\mathrm{{\sigma}}}_{{\mathrm{H}}}^{{\mathrm{2}}}\end{equation*}\end{document}. We analyze \documentclass[10pt]{article} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{pmc} \usepackage[Euler]{upgreek} \pagestyle{empty} \oddsidemargin -1.0in \begin{document} \begin{equation*}{\mathrm{{\sigma}}}_{{\mathrm{H}}}^{{\mathrm{2}}}\end{equation*}\end{document} data obtained at various voltages on a linearized plot that provides estimates of both unitary conductance and the number of channels in the patch, without requiring knowledge of open probability. The unitary conductance averaged 38 fS at pHi 6.5, and increased nearly fourfold to 140 fS at pHi 5.5, but was independent of pHo. In contrast, the macroscopic g H was only 1.8-fold larger at pHi 5.5 than at pHi 6.5. The maximum H+ channel open probability during large depolarizations was 0.75 at pHi 6.5 and 0.95 at pHi 5.5. Because the unitary conductance increases at lower pHi more than the macroscopic g H, the number of functional channels must decrease. Single H+ channel currents were too small to record directly at physiological pH, but at pHi ≤ 5.5 near V threshold (the voltage at which g H turns on), single channel–like current events were observed with amplitudes 7–16 fA.

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Influenza virus is taken up from a pH-neutral extracellular milieu into an endosome, whose contents then acidify, causing changes in the viral matrix protein (M1) that coats the inner monolayer of the viral lipid envelope. At a pH of ϳ6, M1 interacts with the viral ribonucleoprotein (RNP) in a putative priming stage; at this stage, the interactions of the M1 scaffold coating the lipid envelope are intact. The M1 coat disintegrates as acidification continues to a pH of ϳ5 to clear a physical path for the viral genome to transit from the viral interior to the cytoplasm. Here we investigated the physicochemical mechanism of M1's pHdependent disintegration. In neutral media, the adsorption of M1 protein on the lipid bilayer was electrostatic in nature and reversible. The energy of the interaction of M1 molecules with each other in M1 dimers was about 10 times as weak as that of the interaction of M1 molecules with the lipid bilayer. Acidification drives conformational changes in M1 molecules due to changes in the M1 charge, leading to alterations in their electrostatic interactions. Dropping the pH from 7.1 to 6.0 did not disturb the M1 layer; dropping it lower partially desorbed M1 because of increased repulsion between M1 monomers still stuck to the membrane. Lipid vesicles coated with M1 demonstrated pH-dependent rupture of the vesicle membrane, presumably because of the tension generated by this repulsive force. Thus, the disruption of the vesicles coincident with M1 protein scaffold disintegration at pH 5 likely stretches the lipid membrane to the point of rupture, promoting fusion pore widening for RNP release. IMPORTANCEInfluenza remains a top killer of human beings throughout the world, in part because of the influenza virus's rapid binding to cells and its uptake into compartments hidden from the immune system. To attack the influenza virus during this time of hiding, we need to understand the physical forces that allow the internalized virus to infect the cell. In particular, we need to know how the protective coat of protein inside the viral surface reacts to the changes in acid that come soon after internalization. We found that acid makes the molecules of the protein coat push each other while they are still stuck to the virus, so that they would like to rip the membrane apart. This ripping force is known to promote membrane fusion, the process by which infection actually occurs. While it is becoming clearer that multiple processes unite to form a pathway for the entry of the influenza virus after its uptake into endosomes, it is not yet clear how and to what extent the pH-driven changes in the viral matrix contribute to that pathway. Influenza virus is an enveloped negative-strand RNA virus of the Orthomyxoviridae family (1). Its outer envelope consists of a host cell-derived bilayer lipid membrane (BLM) with the incorporated glycoproteins hemagglutinin (HA) and neuraminidase along with proton channel M2. The inner envelope of the virion is a membrane-associated scaffold of matrix protein M1, w...

The effects of the adsorption of the fluorescent potential-sensitive dyes RH-421, RH-237 and RH-160 on the bilayer lipid membrane were studied. It was shown that a dipole potential drop, positive in the hydrophobic part of the membrane, arose due to the dye adsorption. The dye adsorption led to a considerable increase of the rate constant of hydrophobic anion translocation through the membrane, but did not affect their partition coefficient between membrane and water. It implies that the region of the membrane where the potential drops is located deeper than the adsorption plane of hydrophobic ions. The values of boundary potential differences were estimated by two independent methods with unilateral and bilateral application of the dyes to lipid bilayer membranes. The results suggest that RH dye molecules penetrate through the lipid bilayers. The values of zeta-potential in liposomes did not change on dye adsorption. Hence, dye molecules are adsorbed in a form that does not change the surface charge. We estimated the effects of electric field of dye dipole layer on an individual dipole located in the same layer and on ion transport through a membrane protein Na+/K+-ATPase. It turned out that the local electric field of each dye dipole decayed so rapidly that a neighbouring dye molecule did not feel it. It also appeared that RH dyes could have but a minor effect on the electrogenic transport performed by the sodium pump in the examined range of dye concentrations.

Electrogenic ion transport by the Na,K-ATPase was investigated in a model system of protein-containing membrane fragments adsorbed to a lipid bilayer. Transient Na + currents were induced by photorelease of ATP from inactive caged ATP. This process was accompanied by a capacitance change of the membrane system. Two methods were applied to measure capacitances in the frequency range 1 to 6000 Hz. The frequency dependent capacitance increment, ∆C, was of sigmoidal shape and decreased at high frequencies. The midpoint frequency, f 0 , depended on the ionic strength of the buffer. At 150 mM NaCl f 0 was about 200 Hz and decreased to 12 Hz at high ionic strength (1 M). At low frequencies (f K f 0 ) the capacitance increment became frequency independent. It was, however, dependent on Na + concentration and on the membrane potential which was generated by the charge transferred. A simple model is presented to analyze the experimental data quantitatively as a function of two parameters, the capacitance of the adsorbed membrane fragments, C P , and the potential of maximum capacitance increment, ψ 0 . Below 5 mM Na + a negative capacitance change was detected which may be assigned to electrogenic Na + binding to cytoplasmic sites. It could be shown that the results obtained by experiments with the presented alternating current method contain the information which is determined by current-relaxation experiments with cell membranes.